Microsoft today announced that it has acquired Citus Data, a company specializing in PostgreSQL database technology. The Redmond giant has seen acquisitions as a way to bring in more talent, as well as to expand its areas of business for some time now and the purchase made today is focused on Azure.

Last year, Microsoft officially launched Azure services for MySQL and PostgreSQL after it initially began testing support for them in 2017. Since Microsoft added support for PostgreSQL in Azure, its adoption has increased significantly, and the database management system (DBMS) has been chosen as DBMS of the Year by DB-Engines for two years in a row.

Citus Data develops Citus, an open-source extension for PostgreSQL that turns it into a distributed database, proving better performance and scalability for developers. As an extension, it can provide all of its enhanced performance and functionality without lagging behind the development of PostgreSQL proper.

With the acquisition, Microsoft hopes to "further unlock the power of data" and deliver new features for Azure and PostgreSQL more quickly while ensuring they run reliably on Azure. All the while, Microsoft continues committed to open-source technology, something which it had already made clear with the acquisiton of GitHub.